Former British chancellor Rishi Sunak has stated that as prime minister, he will put the UK on a "crisis footing."

Sunak will attempt to shift the debate from tax cuts to the NHS in a speech in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on Saturday, by pledging to put the health service on a "war footing" with a vaccines-style taskforce set up to address the "emergency" of "massive backlogs."

Meanwhile, his Tory leadership rival, Liz Truss, has pledged to review all EU laws retained after Brexit by the end of next year in a "red tape bonfire" if she is elected, and to repeal or replace those deemed to impede UK growth.

Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg had pushed for a similar cliff-edge deadline to tear up 2,400 pieces of legislation, but for two and a half years later, in June 2026. 

His plan sparked a cabinet squabble over its viability, given the planned reduction of a fifth of civil service numbers - approximately 90,000 jobs.

Experts and union leaders said Truss' proposals would be extremely difficult to implement in the context of civil service cuts, warning that it could result in a "bonfire of rights."

Truss and Sunak have launched a flurry of policy announcements in an attempt to gain an advantage in the Conservative leadership election. 

Ballot papers will begin to arrive on party members' doorsteps in less than a week, though they have until September 2 to vote.

The heat is on

Truss and Sunak, who survived an initial round of voting by MPs, will take part in a series of hustings events for members beginning on Thursday in Leeds. 

They will also square off in a televised debate on Monday.

Sunak will highlight his Thatcherite credentials in Grantham on Saturday. He will warn against "backdoor privatization" and announce plans to eliminate one-year NHS waiting times six months earlier than planned by September 2024 and to reduce overall numbers by next year.

“Waiting times for everything from major surgery to a visit to the GP are at record levels. Millions of people are waiting for life-saving cancer screening, major surgeries, and consultations,” he will state.

“People shouldn’t have to make a choice with a gun to their head. If we do not immediately set in train a radically different approach, the NHS will come under unsustainable pressure and break.”

Sunak said, as quoted by the Times, that the UK needed to be on "crisis footing" in order to deal with inflation and a slew of other issues.

“They’re challenges that are staring us in the face and a business-as-usual mentality isn’t going to cut it in dealing with them. So from day one of being in office, I’m going to put us on a crisis footing,” the former chancellor said.

“Having been inside government, I think the system just isn’t working as well as it should,” he is cited as saying. “And the challenges that I’m talking about, they’re not abstract, they’re not things that are coming long down the track.”

In newspaper interviews this weekend, both candidates reiterated their economic policies, which have been the main source of contention in the campaign thus far.

Read more: UK recession risk increases as economy shrinks in March

“What I worry about is the inflation we’re seeing now becoming entrenched for longer,” Sunak said. 

“That’s the risk we need to guard against. If that happens, it will be incredibly damaging for millions across the UK. The cost for families is going to be enormous,” he added.

He also argued that the foreign secretary's plans could cause interest rates to rise while dismissing the notion that he is engaged in a "project fear."

Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister and a Sunak supporter, did not rule out someone from the private sector leading a vaccines-style taskforce to address NHS backlogs.

Sunak was defended by Raab for not proposing any of these ideas while a senior member of the government, saying that as chancellor, he had focused on "critical things" like vaccine rollout and that it was now time to deal with the "aftershocks" of Covid-19.

“What Rishi has done is set out a very credible plan. And critically, it’s properly funded and the challenge is how anyone could match this plan to get overall numbers on waiting lists down by next year unless they also match the health and social care levy,” he said.

“And that just goes to this critical point in this contest – who’s got the credible plan, the credible plan on the economy to get inflation down, the credible plan on the NHS to get waiting lists down? And it’s Rishi Sunak,” he concluded.

Read more: Britain's next Prime Minister: Sunak vs. Truss